


Catra Helps

by Friendlylycanthrope



Category: She-Ra and the Princesses of Power (2018)
Genre: F/F, Hurt/Comfort
Language: English
Status: Completed
Published: 2019-08-02
Updated: 2019-08-02
Packaged: 2020-07-29 17:55:35
Rating: Not Rated
Warnings: Graphic Depictions Of Violence
Chapters: 1
Words: 1,931
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/20086357
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/Friendlylycanthrope/pseuds/Friendlylycanthrope
Summary: Adora wants to set up a meeting with Catra, just to talk. But things don't go according to plan and Catra ends up having to improvise.





	Catra Helps

**Author's Note:**

> This was written based on a great comic drawn by cottoncandyofterror on tumblr, with permission from the artist. Please check out her blog at cottoncandyofterror.tumblr.com to see the original piece of art. I did change a few minor quotes, and added a couple of details for the story. Seriously though the art is beautiful, and I did not make it, I just wrote this to accompany it. 
> 
> Season three came out today. And I am, como se dice, emotionally devastated! So I'm ignoring all that.
> 
> Also, this is the first fanfic I've ever written! So be kind, I'm new to this.

There were a lot of factors that lead up to the meeting. It was long overdue; Adora never gave up on the idea of getting through to Catra, no matter what she had done through the years of torment to her and the rebellion. They met on the battlefield time after time and Catra seemed to enjoy it as though she were playing a game, like there were no risks or high stakes, unlike how Adora saw it. It was getting exhausting. She couldn’t go on like this; she could never bring herself to seriously hurt her old sparring partner, her first friend. No matter how much atrocity the war had shown to harden her, she couldn’t go on like this forever. 

She didn’t tell Glimmer or Bow about the message she had sent. She honestly wasn’t sure if Catra would ever respond or not. Adora wasn’t sure what she was supposed to feel when she received the response, but she wasn’t sure if it was supposed to be relief. It was her plan to let her friends know if Catra agreed to meet up, but she still couldn’t bring herself to tell them. Knowing what horrible things Catra had done to them, the war crimes she committed, having them face Catra would only escalate things. Besides, Adora needed to speak with Catra alone…. for closure. They had too much history together. 

In order to let Catra feel it wasn’t a trap, she had let her pick the time and location for their meeting. Adora planned on arriving early, as she usually does, to scope out the rocky gully that Catra had given the coordinates for. The red sandstone was ragged from decades of wind, creating a gulch in which there were too many places to hide. The stones around her clung to the heat of the day, making a warm atmosphere that tempted Adora to appear without her signature jacket. The sun was setting for the afternoon behind an overcast sky, threatening to rain, with the smell of lightning in the air. 

She was anxious to talk to Catra, nervous about the meeting all together and worried about what Catra would think, and so had arrived plenty early. But when she arrived at the coordinates, she found Catra was already waiting for her, even earlier. She perched atop a sharp butte on all fours, eyebrows knitted together in apprehension as Adora approached. Despite how much the war had changed her, she still looked like the same cat Adora had grown up with: Confident, capable, but she knew it was a façade for her real feelings of unease the same way Adora had felt on coming in. 

Catra saw Adora immediately and she could feel her mismatched eyes view her up and down for weapons, looking for a trick. Adora didn’t mind, she even did the same, even though Catra never carried weapons. She always had her agility and wit to rely on. 

“Catra. Thanks for coming.” Adora didn’t know what to expect from her oldest friend, hostility? Suspicion? Anything would have made sense except for the cat’s cool response.

“Adora. What did you want to talk about?” The tip of her tail switched back and forth several times in curiosity. Adora was taken back. No sarcasm? No mockery? Maybe it would be easier to get through the Catra than she had originally hoped. 

As Adora deeply inhaled to speak, she couldn’t think of the words. Where would she even start? There was so much unsaid between them. But Catra didn’t notice Adora anymore. 

A light vibration caught her ear, low enough that Adora couldn’t hear it. She pointed her ears down the gulley suspiciously. Was it a trap? She quickly spotted a faint glint of green steel hiding amongst the red stones. It wasn’t a trap set by Adora, but it was just as bad. All her fur stood on end. She had no time to ponder, as she heard the canon heating up in preparation for half a second before the blast.

“Adora, look out!” Catra shrieked suddenly, interrupting Adora. But as she spoke it, the bot blasted at the same time in a malicious beam of heat.  
Catra’s eyes followed the beam instantly as they widened in horror. Adora was facing away from it, and was forcefully pushed forward off her feet. She wanted to think that Adora was okay, but she could already see the beam come out her chest, along with whatever organs and muscles it had displaced on its way through. All within the same second, Adora was hit, bleeding heavily, and falling towards the ground. 

“NOOOOO!” Catra screamed hoarsely. She couldn’t let Adora die like this; the hero of the rebellion deserved a better fate than some ambush over a meeting. Catra stood quickly to help, but she heard the bot charging up another blast, and leapt towards the bot with her claws and teeth bared. 

Adora hit the ground painfully, unaware of what had happened. She rolled a few times down a small incline in the gully as she went into shock. Her vision was blurry and doubled, and she felt a slow pain creeping into her chest, her hand shaking up to feel it and feeling her own blood pooling up over her shirt. Her flesh torn and bones lay shattered beneath her quivering fingers. She couldn’t move her entire torso and her limbs were filling with an icy cold numbness, her muscles ripped apart and she suddenly found it extremely difficult just to draw in a breath. 

“Catra...” she whispered, all the sound she could muster. Was the force captain even alive or had she been hit too? Could it have been a trap? At first, she heard the faint clashes of battle, but it became muffled as though it was all under a pillow somewhere far away. The sounds grew fainter, and she knew she needed help as she lost consciousness. Her entire chest was pouring out blood, in addition to a trail of blood from the corner of her mouth. She could hardly see, couldn’t hear anything, all she could sense was the taste of blood through her mouth. 

“Catra…” she pleaded again, even quieter, tears pouring from her eyes. The effort of pushing the single name out of her lips sent splinters of sharp pain through her ribs and she couldn’t make herself grimace. She found her joints, stiff with shock, loosening with sudden fatigue. She desperately tried to turn her head to look about her, but she could hardly see or hear anything anymore. She tried to breathe in again to make another meek call for help, but was unable to. She couldn’t breathe at all, and choked as her vision faded to black.

Adora felt like she was drowning, unable to even make a sound or move in her great waves of agony and numbness. Suddenly, like waking up from a dream, she felt all of it disappear in an instant and her lungs were clear. Her eyes fluttered open and she gasped deeply for breath as she called out again, 

“Catra!” 

“Hey, I’m here.” She felt the hand on her cheek as she began to realize that she wasn’t where she was moments ago and she got dizzy as though through whiplash. Instead of an overcast sky, she looked at the ceiling of her room. Her bed beneath her had replaced the jagged rocks that collected her blood. The morning light of dawn entered the window, no longer a cloudy gray. Her body felt stiff and sore, and she whimpered painfully as she settled into lying down again. She saw her chest wrapped in bandages where her blood soaked shirt had been, although these were still stained through. Her mind reeled in the seconds it took for her to come to her senses, feeling overwhelmed by the sensory overload after her numbness. Then she processed that Catra had spoken to her. She turned her head to see the Force Captain lying in bed at her side, a mix of worry and relief on her face. Her tail went over Adora’s legs and Catra scooted closer as Adora’s mind became clear again. 

“You are…” She rasped. Her throat was dry and her chest ached. “What happened?” Catra’s hand remained gently cradling Adora’s face.

“A Horde soldier followed me, to our meeting point…” Suddenly Catra’s expression suddenly turned dour as she averted her gaze sheepishly from Adora. “I’m so sorry…”

“How long. was I out?” She asked through her pain. Speaking sent aches through her veins, but she forced the words out. 

“Three days.” Catra answered, as she got up onto her elbows to look down on Adora. “Sparkles healed you…” Adora processed the information quicker than she was able to speak. 

“She let you. into Brightmoon?” She asked in disbelief. Their meeting was nicely equidistant between Brightmoon and the Fright Zone, but surely this would put Catra in a bad place... Was Catra putting aside everything to help Adora, or was she playing at something else? 

Catra smirked playfully. This was the Catra that Adora was familiar with, who she would do anything for. Catra came even closer to Adora, wrapping one arm protectively around her as her face came closer. 

“Well, I had her precious She-Ra” Catra said slyly. Adora had more questions, though Catra seemed to be thinking of something else.  
“And she let you stay?”

Now, Catra closed her eyes in a soft chuckle, delighting Adora with a smile. 

“Mnnnnah, not exactly. They tried to lock me up, didn’t go well for them.” Catra said softly. Her hand was still gently holding Adora’s face. 

Catra came closer to the top of Adora, careful not to put any pressure near her bandaged wounds. Adora was weak, but her hands slid up her old friend’s back in the embrace. She didn’t know that she needed this, to feel Catra’s soft fur beneath her fingers as Catra attempted to suppress a soft purr. It had been years since they had truly embraced, and Adora found all her questions evaporating from her worried mind. 

“You…didn’t leave me…” Adora realized. Catra, here in Brightmoon, with her. Adora’s mind was filled with static as certain warm feelings returned to her aching body.

“Of course not.” Catra replied. she couldn’t take her hands off Adora, she knew that she was alright now but when she closed her eyes, she saw Adora bleeding to death in the rocks, drowning in her own blood. There was so much left unsaid between them… She could have lost Adora before she had the chance to tell her…

“Why not?” Catra let a soft smile escape her lips. Adora was thick skulled as usual. She took a chance.

Without a word, Catra closed her eyes and kissed Adora, taking the hero by surprise. Their lips met with tenderness, Catra not wanting to break Adora while she was fragile, and Adora still not at her usual strength. Catra felt Adora tense up under her, then immediately soften as though she were melting in Catra’s embrace. Catra pulled back and looked at Adora. Their eyes met, both filling with tears. Adora had never seen this side of Catra, the gentle and tender side. But she wanted to see more of it. 

Catra waited for a response from Adora. She understood now. And she accepted Catra by leaning in for more, kissing more passionately than before. Catra’s body shook with relief, and Adora with pain. But they embraced, and they had each other in the morning light.


End file.
